Reform Through Community: Resocializing Offenders in the Kibbutz

by Michael Fischer, Brenda Geiger

Overview

This book recounts a successful effort to resocialize criminal offenders placed in Kibbutzim. Social scientist Michael Fischer and educational philosopher Brenda Geiger describe the events and experiences that unfolded when a Kibbutz adopted an Israeli ex-convict as a temporary member of its collective. They conclude that resocialization is achievable: that a world of hard work, interdependence, and self-denial can successfully compete against the temptations for adventure and diversion in an offender's past and present.

Fischer and Geiger reconstruct the subjective experiences of the Israeli ex-convicts who were invited to live and work as members on separate Kibbutzim. They detail how a protective environment, daily routines, egalitarianism, peer group support, acceptance, and trust yielded involvement, commitment, and higher self-esteem on the part of the offenders. Relating the kibbutz experience to theories of social psychology and criminology, Fischer and Geiger offer a model for resocialization combining group dynamics with social learning in a context of meaningful work and acceptance. This study is valuable to students and scholars of social psychology, criminology, and Judaic Studies.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780313279317
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	07/30/1991
Series:	The Kibbutz Study Series , #3
Pages:	248
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.69(d)
Lexile:	1090L (what's this?)

About the Author

MICHAEL FISCHER and BRENDA GEIGER are Research Fellows at the State University of New York at Albany.

Table of Contents

Foreword by Hans Toch
Introduction
The Israeli Criminal Justice System
Kibbutz History, Ideology, and Social Structure
The Kibbutz Resocialization Program
Methodology
Synopsis of Kibbutz Resocialization Process
Work and Other Activities
Adoptive Parents
Kibbutzniks and Kibbutz Friends
Girlfriends
The Offender's Past
Social Control
Change
The Future
Critical Program Ingredients: Participants' Perspectives
Implications
Epilogue
Appendix A: Kibbutz Resocialization Contract
Appendix B: Offender's Contract
Appendix C: Offender's Interview Guide
Appendix D: Adoptive Parents' Interview Guide
Appendix E: Secretary of the Kibbutz Interview Schedule
Appendix F: Questions for the Program Coordinator and Steering Committee
Bibliography
Index